The Cursed Seal of Earth
by kusudama.ball
Summary: An avenger's path to power leads through the darkness. After Neji defects from Konoha with Orochimaru's cursed seal tattooed across his neck, Tenten makes the promise of a lifetime: she will save Neji, from both the person he is and the person he is set on becoming. NejiTen.


Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto.

* * *

Her eyelashes fluttered open to a blinding mess of white.

"How long have I been out?" The words were like cotton in her mouth. Tenten fumbled next to her bed for a glass of water but found none. A cup suddenly appeared before her, and she followed the arm attached to it until she saw the man sitting at her bedside.

Bowl-cut, green spandex. Gai.

"Gai- _sensei_?" She managed to cough out, before sense won over and she grabbed the water from his hands. After wetting her throat she pulled herself into a sitting position. "Where am I?"

The older _jounin_ was quiet for a moment. "The Konoha General Hospital," his eyes met hers and Tenten was surprised to see his face strangely blank. "Team Kurenai found you at the smaller eastern gate while they were doing their morning patrol yesterday. You were unconscious on the ground."

Suddenly everything came back to her. _Neji_ , raced through her mind _, we had a fight and he left_. The memories of her ill-fated battle with her teammate were returning slowly. The rising tide of panic tide of panic must have been visible in her eyes because Gai raised a single hand, stopping her from saying anything. "We found this in your hand."

He held up his other hand, and Tenten's eyes zeroed in on the tangle of silk and metal on his palm. Neji's _hitai-ate_. She immediately reached out to grab it and brought it close, anchoring it against her torso. "So does that mean—"

"From there, it wasn't too hard to figure out what had happened. A retrieval team, led by Nara Shikamaru, was dispatched within the hour. He took any of the available _genin_ with him."

"So that means everyone knows that Neji—that Neji left." _That Neji intended to betray the Village._ Then Tenten felt the beginnings of what would be a fine temper stirring within her. "And they're only sending a rookie _genin_ team?" She didn't know whether to be stupefied or outraged. "They're not nearly enough to bring him back!"

"That's all the _shinobi_ that we had available in the village. The recent attack by the Sand has left our forces spread thin."

Gai was behaving uncharacteristically, Tenten suddenly noticed. He was not usually so serious or, for lack of a better word, well-behaved. The idea made her skin crawl more than her memories of the previous night with Neji. Gai- _sensei_ , for as long as she had known the man, was boisterous, energetic, even when irritatingly so. She was not used to such bare, matter-of-fact answers.

"Gai- _sensei_. Are you alright?" Her voice faltered. "A-Are we alright?"

He maintained his carefully blank face for a moment longer, but Tenten could tell that it would not last for long. The neutral line of his mouth slipped into a frown, and then Gai- _sensei_ began to cry in earnest, the rivulets of tears rolling down his face. His features distorted and he sniffled and he was much more human than the somber man he had been before. "I was worried, Tenten. You were unconscious in the hospital. Neji was halfway out of the Land of Fire. My children were all so lost." He choked. "And Lee…"

The tears that swam down Gai- _sensei_ 's face began to flow harder. Tenten was accustomed to seeing the man cry, as it was one of his many eccentric habits, but there was something glinting in his eyes that let her know this was not another melodramatic act. This time it was real. Everything that had happened was real—not a _genjutsu_ , not a trick.

"Lee broke out of the hospital and went with them. He left a note for us." Gai withdrew a small, folded white paper from his flak jacket pocket. One of the edges was torn jaggedly. Lee was usually a methodical person; he must have been in a hurry. "Lee heard about Neji's disappearance and followed the retrieval team. Lee said that he would not let his eternal rival go that easily, and that Neji would soon realize the path to power should not lead through the darkness. He said that he would bring his beloved teammate home."

The tan, muscled hand on Tenten's hospital bed fisted into the over-starched sheets, paling in its tautness. The line of Gai's arm shook with withheld tension.

"Lee said he would not return without Neji, no matter what it took. He said it was his promise of a lifetime."

* * *

"I was told I could find you here."

The _kunai_ left her fingers before she even had a second thought. The brush of flying steel was instinct to her. The blade embedded itself with a dull _thunk_ on the wooden bookshelf behind him, only millimeters away from the curve of his neck. Tenten swung her head over to look at the unexpected guest and offered a stilted apology once she recognized him. "Sorry, Lee. I guess I wasn't paying attention. You surprised me."

"It is alright, Tenten." Lee smiled. It would have been a convincing smile on anyone else but his normal grin was usually a hundred times brighter. "How are you feeling?"

"They let me out of the hospital five days ago. I'm feeling fine." It was true. Tenten's physical injuries had all healed quickly. "I'm back on active duty already. How's your leg?"

"Aah. I am happy to hear that." If Lee noticed how stiff Tenten seemed then he did not remark on it. "I am still expected to make a full recovery within a few months."

"That's good," Tenten intoned. Lee shuffled a little on his crutches.

An awkward silence began to stretch between them when Tenten made no move to say further and Lee fidgeted beside her. Predictably, Lee was the first to break, and he made the first move by extending an open hand towards her. "I came to apologize. I know I promised—"

"I don't want to hear it!" Tenten bit out, finally swiveling in her chair to fully face him. She had been waiting for all the pleasantries to end before her teammate finally revealed his true purpose for visiting her and it is exactly what she had feared. She ripped herself out of the tome that had been open before her to glare at him. "I know what you're going to say, Lee, and I don't want to hear it!"

Lee, for his part, looked appropriately taken aback. "Tenten, at least let me finish—"

"What's the point when I already know what you're going to say?" She snarled. "You're going to apologize. You're going to tell me that you couldn't keep your promise and then apologize again." Lee had withdrawn his hand at this point. "I already know that, Lee! Neji isn't here. Neither of us was able to bring him back this time even though we both gave it our best shot."

With her fiery rant concluded, Tenten leveled a ragged sigh. She took a moment to take everything in. Lee, the crutches loosely under his arms, sagged against the bookshelf. The rows and rows of paper tomes and scrolls that surrounded them, deep in the recesses of the Konoha library. The weary expression on her teammate's face that she knew was echoed on her own. Lee looked afraid, but Tenten somehow knew it was not from her verbal assault but rather the thread of desperation that was woven through it.

Tenten cracked a hint of a smile. "I don't want to hear you apologize, Lee. We're not failures yet—we'll only be failures if we give up. And we have other chances, right?"

It was the assurance that Lee was looking for. He straightened off the bookcase and hobbled towards her, burning with that same never-say-die attitude she had grown to expect from him. "I was afraid you would be defeated. I can see that I was wrong."

Lee extended a hand towards her again. "We are both truly members of Team Gai."

Tenten clasped his hand in hers. The bandages wrapped around his palms chaffed at her fingers and the dusty library air was beginning to irritate her eyes. She ignored everything but Lee's determined eyes on her and tightened her grip on his hand.

"Then this is our new promise of a lifetime, Lee. We are going to save him." Her eyes hardened. "No matter what it takes."

* * *

Hello :) Checking in with another NejiTen fic, hopefully a multi-chapter exploring one of my favorite AUs, Neji was Orochimaru's seal. This is the sequel to "Cursed Seal of Heaven" and will probably make a little more sense after reading that one.

Kudos to Nameless-Anonymous-Author for talking me through some of the finer plot points.


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